Machina
The Machina are a race of advance cyborgs living in the Perseus Arm of the galaxy, hailing from the world of Kastella. Background The Machina are a race of enterprising and adept cyborgs, with a total of 95% cyberisation of their bodies on average. The race's main ideaology is to advance through contact with new races, adapting their culture, customs, languages and most importantly their technology to their own. Their nature was forged after the long and bloody civil war that embroiled their world, resulting in the breaking down of isolationist attitudes. As a result, very few 'mature' Machina choose to remain on their homeworld, much preferring to go out and explore new cultures, either by finacing their own trips to alien worlds, joining the crews of merchant or exploratory vessels, joining companies with facilities on other worlds or joining the military. Due to their uncompromisingly friendly nature and despite their fearsome looks, they were welcomed with open arms by the Alliance of United Races upon their first contact. History Evolution Their biological ancestary is often shielded in mystery, most records of it were either destroyed by the Church, the unifying and oppresive goverment on Kastella five hundred years ago, or destroyed during the civil war that ousted them. what is known was they bear some resembelance to the forms many of them take now, being eight foot with a short neck and low set head, broad shoulders, lithe limbs and almost skeletal midriff. Other than that, little is known past their children. Most off these remain with their parents during their younger years until their first 'frame'. It is known they were similar to mammals in a sense and had two sexes, male and female, which often decides their future 'frames'. However, due to the tough defences of many of the prey their early ancestors dealt with, their brain quickly adpated to tool making which brought about their future civil war. Historians have noted strange occurences in their evolution from mamallian bipedal browsers, akin the monkeys of earth. There have been occassions where a there have been sudden jumps in their evolution and where a single, dominant sub species has been introduced to the population, presumably through mutation, that has effectively changed the entire course of thier genetic history. Genetic testing of these ancient ancestors show that these were infact those responsible for their odd brain structure. Some wild theorists have suggested that this is alien intervention though this is largely discounted by the scientific community at large. The Church The Church was an organization set up in obscurity to surpress the rising tide in 'technology'. for four hundred years, they stopped the technological growth of their race, using an army fed of drugs that suppressed their brain that related to their famed tool making capabilities. Technology was destroyed or confiscated, engineers murdered, scientists executed publicly. After three hundred years and fifty years a underground engineer and scientist known as Urval Gaust created the first 'frame'. The frame utilizes a wide range of defensive technologies technologies to shield the users 'brain case', a case that holds the brain, linked directly to the frame. It is fed by oxygen resevoirs continually refed from the air around them and large reserves to keep it alive and directs the frames actions. He built dozens of them and granted them to his seven followers who then traveled to the largest of the 'technology ghettos' in the area and began to spread the frames design around, soon creating hundreds of cyborgs. They rose up against the Church's forces and in a series of bloody, direct assaults upon their garrisons, made by cyborgs armed with molecular edge blades, firearms and cannons against swords and bows. Within a night of attacking the whole garisson of the city was destroyed or surrendered and freed of the Church's thrall. Soon the city fell under the command of the Cyobrgs, now calling themselves the 'Machina'. The Church leader, Vallen Ko cordially asked Gaust to come meet him, alone outside the city to ask peace terms. Gaust, despite the better recomendations of his followers, agreed. There he met Ko and his one hundred and fifty assassins. Gaust, despite being a eight foot titanium clad monster was felled by their blades being stabbed into the seams between his armour. He fell, his brain case pierced. Ko hoped this would kill the rebellion in its youth but had the opposite effect. War of Purging Before Vallen Ko knew what was happening, Gaust had been declared a martyr, a symbol of freedom. soon civilians began to rise up in their cyborg bodies in other, nearby cities, spreading like a viral threat. Ko made his armies lay siege to the cities, not allowing the poison to spread any further. Throguh this, the different workshops were isolated, creating different 'lineages', each developing their own distinct frames, arms and battle tastes. After ten years Ko thoguht he had stopped the rebellion. he planned to use hidden technology to raze the cities, to stop wipe out any memory of them. However, Vallen had bigger problems. Machina, sallying out of their cities in modified barges, armoured trucks, autogyros and stealth technology, they broke out, spreading their word, as a secondary objective but their primary one was launching their first offensive strike against the vast plantations where the plants that gave the Church their supressants were grown. They poisoned, burned and destroyed their crops, freeing whole entire armies from their thrall. Now, with his armies rapidly rebelling against him, Ko fell back to the western continent. For five years nothing happened until on the anniversary of the first rebellion, Ko launched a massive naval invasion, hoping to throw off the Machina while they were celebrating. They never stood a chance. A wide spectrum of reconnaisance technology alerted the Machina when they left port and by the time they landed on the beaches of the Machina continent the high cliff walls were riddled with pillboxes and cannons were aimed at the beaches. In a few hours, the entire invasion force was destroyed through machine guns, massed artillery, mines, grenades, bomber planes, submarines, warships and armoured vehicles killed the army on the beaches and sunk their ships. Now the Machina decided it was time to liberate the western continent. The tactic of freeing the soldiers wouldn't work as at first they began to blockade them from imports of the drugs from the northern continent but Ko had made massive blockades in a single warehouses, guarded by a miriad of forbidden technology that would kill them in seconds and a vast army. they decided it was a unattainible objective and decided not to strike. However, a small unit, named the Wild Seven volenteered to strike. They were some of the best and they had years of combat experience. Armed with the latest frame, made by each of their respective workshops, each one coming from a different city, they set about infiltrating the warehouse. Making it inside through guile and stealth, they accidentally rose the alarm before the interior of the warehouse. One member of their squad, Avellian Mako, held the single bridge into the warehouse inner defences. As the army rushed him across the bridge, he held firm with a predecessor to the Mako Axe, gutting hundreds before being heavily damaged by a ballista and then killed the same way as Gaust. However, it would take them some time to clear their own dead, making access to the inner defenses difficult. Inside, another Catuga Benvora sacrificed herself to protect the others from a defensive measure. From there they broke into the warehouse and layed their tactical thermonuclear bomb. Jakhir Jastenon was injured before they could leave and decided to defend the bomb. Mavelka Kreigor stayed behind to buy the team more time, leaving only Urvana Gaust, Kaden Fondera and Hurk Argenta to escape alive. The Wild Seven were soon immortalized as the continent fell from Church control in a series of small scale invasions and bitter uprisings. Within 45 years, the northern continent, the Church's powerhouse, was blockaded by the Machina. Slowly running out of food, they turned the fast drug plantations into places to grow food crops, resulting in armies becoming free of the drugs influence. The church fell into obscurity and for the first time in four hundred years, Kastella had peace. Law of the Seven Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the Church, the seven Lineages set up laws pertaining to cybernetics, now a indefinite part of Machina culture, and laws as to religion. Each area was to be goverened by a locally elected council, with a ultimate supervisor to rout out corruption. There would be a single goverment, made up with delegates of the seven lineages, that would decide the Machina's decisions. Apart from the obvious laws three came to being. *Religion is illegal for all Machina *Unless it is imoral, dangerous or unethical, no scientific advancment is to be surpressed *The Cyberisation law. The Cyberisation Law dictates that upon reaching maturity (sixteen for the Machina) and school graduation that the youth must choose between getting a Frame or staying at least mostly organic. After that point there is no going back. 98% of Machina choose the route of having their brains taken from their bodies and fitted into a frame. Frames are custom built by the artisans within their families/lineages, with better quality ones usually going to the child who preforms the best, a form of favouritism that cannot be stopped. Children are produced by combining the DNA (with egg and sperm respectivly) of two married Machina of opposite sexes (combinations of same sex has been requested in the past but lead to difficulties during fertilization). This fertilized egg is then put into a vat to be grown until it can be born. From there, the child grows normally and attends school as a child from any race would, until their graduation. Recent History More recently, the Machina have made contact with both the Remnant and the Alliance of United Races, resulting in bitter engagments with one and immeidate alliance with the other. With access to the new races of the Alliance, their knowledge expanded tenfold, with exploreres immediatly entering the cultures of those races. Culture Their culture is dependant upon outside intervention. They will immediatly begin trading technology, with the main idea of retrofitting it to themselves and their own technology. As the majority of their race are out going, friendly in nature and none inclined to war, they easily get on with other races. The main part of their culture is tool making, ever since they were primitve and in their organic shells. It is a primarily family and private affair, with workshops maintained by families over generations. Each family is well known for producing its own distinct technology, with no two workshops alike. The knowledge of technology is passed on from parents to children, who inherit their workshops after they pass. Almost every Machina, at some point in their life, goes off world. In a desire to learn they visit other races, more far flung lineages, distant research facilities. Of course, some find other ways of leaving, such as joining the army, companies or research groups. This way, they get away from their home and happen upon new experiences. Of course, the only thing that can call their people back is the call of war. Names The naming culture in the Machina is odd. Having the names of your ancestors is a proud thing, with many bearing the names of their fathers father or his mosthers father, or their fathers mother, vice versa. However, one stranger thing yet is something else they gain. Upon recieving their first frame, they achieve their 'face name', a name to use as a offhand handle and in informal occassions, compared to their 'family name'. These are often based upon their personality or their frame, or a mixture of both. For an example, Okunda Jastenon is Okunda's family name but, upon recieving his frame which incorporated a number of smoke dischargers and other defensive measures based on visibility, he earned the face name, 'Smokescreen', which is used informally by friends, family and his military unit. Not all have earned face names and some are earned later in life through their actions. Frames Each Machina that chooses to Cyberise is armed with the Frame, perfection in cyber technology. Each frame is a self contained armoured suit, housing their brain in a roughly humanoid body with increased strength and power. Each frame is coated in a layer of armour alloy, with various layers for protection. Within those for civillians that have yet to be modified for war, they contain normal amounts of fibre muscle, engineering tools within the fore arms (such as welders, computer interfaces, PDAs, etc), a standard occular sensor matrix, giving full colour view and a full interface system. Internally, apart from their brain case, stored deep within a armoured case within their chest, they contain a power generator, though originally a petrol engine in the first prototype then electrical batteries in later models until replacement by fusion cores or plasma batteries, a main data interface, a large cyborg implant that bonds into their brain, providing a cross over from organic impulses to machine reactions and a central proccessing weave, which is the inflow system, transforming digital impulses into their brain. Some choose to have implants increasing their memory, decreasing reaction time or other things in their brains. Also, more recently, many military frames are outfitted with shield generators. In those made for military combat, a large number of systems make an appearance. Military interface systems provide HUD, military transmissions, relays and commands directly into their brain. With higher capacity power cores, military grade brain interfaces and more advance and thicker armour, they immediatly have an advantage over civillian frames. With increased muscle fibre and a plethora of hidden weaponary, they also have more offence capabilities. Examples are blades hidden within their fore arms, whip like tails, 'shoulder racks' weapon racks hidden within their shoulders which often raise to reveal machine guns, missile racks, rocket pods, plasma weapons or a defence mecanism. Among other things, they feature retractable wheels in their feet for quick mobility, anti gravity or jet packs and some have elected to build solid state energy shiled generators into their gauntlets. Political System The Machina Federation, the main political force of the Machina, is controlled by a parliment made up of representatives of every lineage. There is almost 2000 seats. The number of seats is decided by the size and poll popularity of Lineage, so naturally larger lineages hold more seats. Every lineage holds at least one seat, the lineage can never lose every parliment seat. Decisions ultimately come down to the highest politically ranked member of the seven great lineages. These however, must be voted in favour of by the parliment. This results in political alliances that are almost medieval in affair with arranged marriages to sea alliances, technology and factory trades, trade of vital materials etc. Though nothing short of bribery, there is nothing illegal about it in their system. Lineages The Seven Lineages and 37 minor Lineages are the driving force behind the Machina race. Each lineage is a city, forced into isolation during the civil war, each can easily be distinguished by their different frames, technology and attitudes. The power behind the lineages are the families who organize them. Each one is usually lead and named after the family that rose up as the leaders of that city in the rebellions. These families are somewhat revered within the Machina, not as god like beings, a literal sin in their culture but more as 'heroes'. They are expected to perform above and beyond all others and set an example. Those that underachieve are hit with a social stigma like no other. Seven Lineages Gaust The Gaust are first and foremost of the lineages, being formed from the family or Urva Gaust, the first Machina. They are well categorised as being the largest family, they control the largest city and they produce the largest amount of weapons, vehicles, frames and ships for the Machina Military. Their own frames are easily the most balanced of the houses, neither trading speed for protection or vice versa, with little or no ornate detailing. With simplicity and ruggedness the main design aim, their armour never appears any more decorative than simple colour patterns. Mako The Mako are well reknowned for being the best warriors within the Machina and deadly with their 'Mako Axes'. They weild large, almsot unwieldy axes, many often passed from father to son. Though the often appear normal by the standards of the other races, bearing neither a plamsa blade or any kind of energy burst, they are refined to the point where these are not needed. Common equipment for them includes diamond nanometer edges, grafting them from pure tungsten, sharpened to slice armoured suits apart, vibrocells to make them oscillate several thousand times in a second to tear flesh and armour or with vicious teeth on a chainsaw like tread. Their frames reflect their warrior nature, often being coloured in a steel or silver finish and with deisgns focused around scaring their enemies and enforcing their martial capability on the battlefield. Benvora Benvora are known for their light and potent frames, thoguh weakly armoured. Their frames are esseintially light alloy metals with little other protection but have a massive increase in fibre muscle and reactive systems, enabling incredibly fast reactions. Noted as assassins, scouts, pilots and snipers, they are first in the field of stealth and mobility technology. Jastenon Jastenon are well known, especially amongst the Sangheili, for their grasp of plasma technology. Having many migrated to interact with the Sangheili race, they have adopted plasam weapons and Sangheili warrior codes quickly. Most have reverse engineered plasma weaponary into a wide plethora of other directed energy weapons the Alliance of Races is only just discovering. Kreigor The Kreigor Lineage is known for their heavy, brutally well armed Frames. Covered in plates of heavy armour, mobility is only a secondary consideration with them. Fondera The Fondera are famous for their use of heavy weaponary. Many Machina use Seige Guns but the Fondera are most famous for the Seige Battallions they produce. Armed with mammoth siege guns boasting the firepower of tanks or greater, many have simply ran in fear of their sights. Argenta The Argenta began heavy trade of materials and technology with the UNSC upon first contact, quickly developing a passion for missile and rocket technology. The application of missiles and rockets onto warheads never occured in Machina history. They quickly found massed used within their frames which are all designed around the ideal of mobility without effects upon protection and endurance, giving one of the most promising frame designs. Minor Lineages *Ferox *Maste *Bedford *Tordin *Siren *Giga *Barretto *Baladot *Tarom *Zanvire *Kryten *Prime *Nautrix *Sutoraifu *Norok *Grahf *Stern *Geist *Yuda *Malac *Shivo *Kline *Vigma *Thre-da *Juran *Lehar *Jolaosk *Wehtom *Ratag Technology The technology at the fingertips of the Machina range from the high tech to the sheer barbaric. They have faster than light travel slower than that of the Covenant but faster than that of the UNSC prior to the Human-covenant War. They possess accurate and potent rocket and missile weaponry but often eschew them in favour of more conventional weapons. In line with Machina military thinking, they use Siege Guns, massive, Machina portable guns. These range from 75mm guns all the way to 300mm and carry an 0nboard suite of other weaponry, such as machine guns, energy weapons, smaller cannons and as of late, missiles and rockets. Models that are 100mm+ often hold stabilisers or their users do, providing a steady platform for destruction. The weapons are also partially compartmentalised, with most have stowed stabilisers or stowed barrels. They wield close combat weapons with unnerving might and in high numbers, due to their natural defensive powers, getting close enough to use them isn't a consideration. Military Their military has often been described as the 'most powerful militia in the galaxy' which is near enough true. Their army is infact one large, haphazardly armed fighting force. With no true 'industry' outside of family workshops, most weapons are made by individual families, meaning most have a wide plethora of weaponary. Though many take a unified ammo size for their ever popular firearms or batteries for their energy weapons, vehicles are also made by the larger familiy workshops, resulting in a vast plethora of vehicles. No two have, as of yet, been found to be identical unless purposely made that way (if a family is doing batch production or specialised 'twins'). Ships however, are often made by the largest 'workshops', though shipyards is more correct. These produce the Machina's largest space faring warships, such as Dreadnoughts, Carriers and Cruisers, but Frigates and Destroyers are made by several smaller workshops teaming up to produce a single vessel, though often they produce all the components then give them to a larger workshop to put together. Famous Machina *Tensor Gaust III *Jenson 'Mega Ton' Gaust II *Morvale Dun Geist II *Mikiz Dazzen Geist I *Pax 'Galva' Mako *Caliguren 'Grimlock' Mako *Mirabel Fondera *Victor 'Landmine' Fondera *Hansvis 'Starscream' Benvora *Delganon 'Wheeljack' Benvora *Xan Kreigor *Hurk 'Hunter-Killer' Kreigor XLVII *Majin 'Soundwave' Argenta *Volen 'Ironhide' Argenta *Justi 'Matrix' Jastenon *Okunda 'Smokescreen' Jastenon *Marvella 'Ratchet' Stern *Kuraudo 'Buster' Sutoraifu *Cordatta Zanvire *Tenile Thre-da XLII *Odrinus Yuda *Vell Lehar *Hirte Kryten *Danna 'Sunstreaker' Barretto *Ban 'Sideways' Barretto *Rox 'Striker' Fondera *Jarga 'Shield & Sword' Jastenon VIII Trivia *The two biggiest influences on the Machina are the manga story, Ghost in the Shell and Transformers Generation 1